The season of black horror experienced by Hapoel Tel Aviv broke a new record yesterday, with the biggest defeat in the history of the club - 6:0 to Hapoel Beer Sheva.
It's a humiliation for which coach Slobodan Drapić may pay in his seat, but the question is whether the Reds have any solution in sight.
Let's start with the coach.
The disappointment with Drapić is felt by the owner of the club long before the humiliating six-pointer he suffered.
They saw the team eliminated from the cup against a rival from the national team, and remained silent.
They saw the team showing a horrible level of football, and kept quiet.
They saw the coach change vehicles every Monday and Thursday, and kept quiet.
They had received reports that he had allegedly lost the locker room, and were still silent.
But as far as they are concerned, it's over - they've reached water to the brim.
Omar Buxenbaum,
The owners wanted to give professional manager Omer Buxenbaum and CEO Liran Mokhtar a free hand, due to the fact that the club is supposed to be transferred to the group of buyers from the USA, and the two are supposed to continue even if the owners change.
But the current situation caused them, and especially the Nisanov brothers, to get into the thick of it.
"Maybe we should have been more involved," one owner said.
"Now everything must be done so that the team does not get relegated."
The owners know that from an image point of view, changing three coaches in half a season is something that looks very bad.
What's more, Boxenbaum would like Drapich to get the credit at least until after four new players are signed.
On the other hand, the team looks bad from week to week - and there is no other shock that can be done.
"If we fire him, they'll say we're a neighborhood," said one of the owners, "but even if we don't fire the coach - they'll say we're a neighborhood that didn't fire the coach who suffered the biggest defeat in our history."
The Nisanov brothers.
What will they do now?, Photo: Alan Shiver
going in rounds
The owners' big blunder is that they don't want to make unilateral moves, which would be a financial burden on the American purchasing group.
"We don't want to do something that will blow up the deal," they said in Hapoel.
This fumble may be relatively small regarding the coach's contract, but regarding the players' contract - it is much more complex.
These are the names of the players that Hapoel would like to get rid of professionally and financially: Stefan Marinovich, Godfried Romarto, Pablo Gonzalez (finished the season), Abu Dusso, Cynthia Sallich, Shlomi Azoulai and Idan Vared.
The point is that as long as these players are not released - there is no room in the budget, and here too the Reds are being slandered in front of the purchasing team, and cannot sign whoever they want and for whatever amount they want.
Drapich and Zandberg.
Lost the dressing room?, Photo: Alan Shiver
There are many disgruntled players in the Hapoel Tel Aviv dressing room, for various reasons.
There are those who play in the lineup and know that they are not wanted, or that they are going to be cut in the coming days, like Romarto.
Some don't let them play.
There are also tensions between some of the young players and some of the veterans.
A Hapoel official said: "Our most difficult problem is the social situation."
It is possible that a new coach will be able to solve a large part of the problems with some of the players, and the tensions between the young and the veterans, but even if a coach is replaced - he will require at least four or five new players.
"Any player we bring will be better than what we have now," they said in Hapoel.
As published on the "Israel Hayom" website, the club put forward the names of Haim Silves and Marko Belval as possible candidates to replace Drapich, and there may be developments on the matter in the coming days.
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